Decision on charging tuition for Salem County vo-tech students expected to come in January

Salem County vo-tech school officials will decide in January whether to charge tuition for students to attend the school.

By Kelly Wolfgang, kwolfgang@sjnewsco.comMANNINGTON TWP. — A decision regarding whether or not to charge tuition for students attending the Salem County Vocational Technical School has been pushed back to January.

It was reported earlier this month that the vo-tech school district was seeking a way to find more funding after being forced to make tough cuts in previous years.

Superintendent Dr. Loren Thomas said that last year alone, the school was forced to cut the IT and energy programs, which caused the layoff of two teachers.

The school also had to lay off the vice principal, a secretary and two maintenance workers in order to not crumble under a severely under-funded budget.

Thomas said that he is unsure what cuts would have to be made in the next school year if additional funding isn’t found, but he did seem dismayed at the prospects.

Unlike other county school districts that can collect local school taxes, the Salem County Vocational Technical School District relies solely on state aid and county freeholder support.

“In order for us to keep operating at the same level that we are now, we would need to get a 3 percent increase of state aid and a 3 percent increase of county aid. Even then, we still would not be able to run the energy and IT programs,” Thomas said.

Thomas said that the decision to charge tuition is not final, though the only other options to ease budget concerns are for greater support from the state and the county, which both seem unlikely.

Thomas said that generally speaking, the county generates a revenue of $500,000 for every penny of tax money.

If the freeholders were to raise taxes even 1-and-a-half cents, roughly $750,000 could be generated to go toward the school.

“Freeholders just don’t want to raise taxes at all, which I completely understand,” Thomas said.

Previously, Thomas said that it costs the district about $13,000 to educate each full-time student at SCVTS.

Even after state aid and county funding, the school still is short about $3,000 per student.

Thomas is proposing a tuition cost of $1,000 for each student, which would still leave the school under-funded, but would provide a much needed break in terms of the budget. Each school district which sends a student to vo-tech would pay the fee.

Typically, a school district from any town which sends an 8th-grade student into a county high school pays tuition for the student.

For example, Mannington pays about $13,800 for each 8th-grade student attending high school, according to Thomas, who is also the superintendent there.

In the county, each of the five other high schools have a tuition charge that is much greater than the proposed $1,000 tuition of the vocational technical high school, he added.

“The lowest tuition in the county is still $2,000 higher than our tuition would be,” Thomas said. “If a student comes to the vo-tech, the tuition of $1,000 is radically lower than having a student sent to any other area high school. It would actually be a bargain.”

Of the seven southern New Jersey counties with vocational technical schools, Salem County vo-tech is the only institution to not charge tuition, according to Thomas. The other schools charge tuition rates ranging from just over $2,000 per student per year to nearly $7,000.

At the vo-tech board meeting Tuesday, Thomas requested to postpone making a recommendation to the board regarding a tuition charge until he could get more feedback, information and statistics.

Members of the audience and the board were given ample time to voice concerns and pose questions involving budget and possible tuition.

“I want to look at the comparative cost index to determine the exact budgets of other schools and where we fit in, the possible implications of not charging a tuition, and see how much money we will be given in aid. At this point, the budget for next year is a moving target, so it’s very hard to determine exactly what will need to be done,” Thomas said.

If the school did charge tuition, Thomas said he would use the money to reinstate the energy and IT programs and provide more support for the special aid teachers in the district.

Among growing concerns from other school officials, Thomas said that he would not do anything to negatively impact anyone in the county.

“I know that school funding is hard right now, and I really don’t want to do anything to damage the education programs of other districts,” he said.

The superintendent will be making a recommendation as to whether or not to charge tuition at a special meeting on Jan. 11 at 5:30 p.m., at which point the board will officially vote on the issue.